According to a senior official in the Qatar Ministry of Interior, archiving of fingerprinting of foreign workers will be fully digital by the middle of this year.

Local media reports that the digitization of more than 1.6 million fingerprints has been completed and the remaining are expected to be converted into electronic format very soon.

Captain Mohamed Mubarak Al Subaie, head of fingerprinting section at the criminal evidences and information department (CEID) commented: “In coordination with the Information Systems Department and other authorities concerned, we started preparing the electronic archive for fingerprinting on April 17, 2014, which was earlier done in papers.”

2,000 to 2,600 fingerprints are taken daily in a procedure that takes less than 10 minutes. The fingerprints are then transferred to the Passports Department of the Ministry as a prerequisite for issuing residency permits to newly-recruited foreign workers. “After that we complete the remaining steps such as storing the fingerprints in the servers, to be used as a proof of identity,” said Al Subaie.

Companies are now required to make appointments in advance to make the procedure easier and faster for workers and to avoid crowding at the fingerprinting service centres.

Last August, research firm TechNavio issued a report titled “Biometric Market In Middle East 2015-2019“, which covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the biometrics market in the Middle East for the period 2015-2019. The report provides a detailed analysis of biometric technologies being used in the Middle East market, including fingerprint identification, DNA analysis, iris recognition, facial recognition, and voice recognition. The firm projects that the biometrics market in the Middle East is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.35% over the period.